


You Are Not Alone

by Virlomi



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms
Genre: Caring Matt, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Near is Mentioned, Poor Mello, Slightly graphic description of wounds, Songfic, Why Do I Love These Two So Much?, after the explosion, some language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 11:29:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10661649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Virlomi/pseuds/Virlomi
Summary: Matt joins Mello in hiding after Mello triggers the explosion at the Mafia base, and does what he can to take care of him.Inspired by the song Flares, by The Script, but you can still read it even if you haven't heard the song or don't like The Script.





	You Are Not Alone

The message came at 2:20am. 

Matt was awake, of course. To be honest, he hadn't slept well since Mello left Wammy's House, and that was going on what...three years? Four years? 

It had been a long time. Even now that he'd been gone from Wammy's House for two years, Mello's absence somehow still reached him in the dark, chasing sleep away.

Most nights, Matt was awake until at least three, smoking too many cigarettes and playing too many games he'd played too many times. 

He was in the middle of Assassin's Creed: Revelations for the sixth time that week when his burner phone, the one Mello had given him the last time he'd visited Los Angelos, vibrated.

Immediately, he tossed the controller aside and grabbed for it. The number on the caller ID was a US number, and not a familiar one. 

"Kira found us. Meet me where we did the exchange. Don't text back" was all the message said. 

Matt scrambled for his laptop and threw it and the phone into his bag. He added some clothing and his handheld games and his last two packs of cigarettes, and ran out the door, hailing a cab to the Heathrow airport.

 

 

When he got off the plane in LA, he checked the burner phone again, but there were no new messages. He wasn't surprised. Something was wrong here, and he was certain that Mello had gotten himself in over his head with this Kira business. 

Matt didn't give a shit about Kira. He'd lived underground his whole life. There were only a few people living who knew his real name anymore, and he knew none of them would tell. But he also knew that it was a battle Mello was dedicated to winning, heart and soul. And he knew that it was because of Near that Mello had even gotten involved. 

Matt had never liked Near.  Just when he thought Mello would finally be able to stay in one place for a while in their tiny apartment in London, Near dragged him back into danger of the worst kind. 

Fucking Near.  

But he was loyal to Mello. He knew why Mello couldn't be second. Mello had always been everyone's second, never anyone's first choice for anything. Until Matt. And Matt had thought for a while that it would be enough for Mello, knowing that there was no one else Matt would rather be with than him. 

A part of him always knew it wouldn't be though. Mello was insatiable, determined to conquer. And Matt, well...Matt was determined to be behind him when he did.  No matter what.

 

 

The tunnel was closed when Matt arrived after trekking through the desert for two hours, but he knew where the trigger was from the last time he'd come here. Of course, then it had been him and Mello. But he found it again and pulled it hard, discovering that it wasn't as easy as Mello had made it look. But he managed, and the door began to rise. 

Matt descended the staircase, acutely aware of his lack of weapons. Fucking airport security and their regulations. He had brought nothing with him. But that message could only be from Mello.

The air down here was damp and heavy. As he passed the exchange chamber, he noticed that there was blood on it, and he hurried faster, shining the light on his phone ahead of himself into the dark.

"Mello!" He shouted. "Mello, where are you?" 

His voice echoed down the tunnel. There was no answer. 

"Mello!" He yelled again, not caring about the way his voice carried. 

He listened intently again, moving slowly up the tunnel towards the network of rooms that the Mafia kept to hide out in or hold meetings. They knew him anyway. If they were here, no one would touch him. They were all afraid of Mello.

"Mello!" He shouted as loud as he could this time, his voice sounding a little high pitched. 

He listened for something, anything, but when nothing came, he decided on a new course of action. Slowly, he counted to ten in his head and then yelled again. 

"Mellllllllllo!"

Ten seconds. 

"Mellllllllooooo!"

In the intervals between shouts, he used his phone light to comb the place for any more sign of him. The first room was the meeting room, and Matt had flicked on the dim light and looked carefully in all the corners, but it was empty. 

He walked out of the room and down the tunnel again, still calling for Mello. 

By the third room, he was starting to become very frightened and feel very alone down here. The dark, mixed with the heaviness in the air and the fact that he was underground and miles from anywhere had started to wear on him. 

And there was still no answer. 

"Mello! Mello, please answer me!"

Nothing. 

Matt slapped his palm against the rocky side of the tunnel and closed his eyes. 

"Mells, please!" Mells, where are you?"

And then he thought he heard something. It was so quiet that he had to hold his breath to make sure.

"Matt. Matt. Matty."

"Mello! Oh god, Mello, where are you? I'm here, Mello, where are you?" 

"In here," Mello's voice answered from down the tunnel. Matt stumbled over his own feet running towards the sound. 

"Which room, Mells?"

There was a long pause before the answer, and it was strained. "Last one..."

Matt sprinted to the last door and pushed it open. The room was dim, lit only by a corner lamp with a dusty shade. 

Mello was there, lying on a shitty couch with his face turned away from Matt, and his clothes were bloody. Matt was on his knees next to him in an instant.

That's when he realized that Mello had his face in a bowl of water. 

"Mello, what are you doing?" He cried, trying to pull the bowl away. "Mello, Mello, no. This is not the time to go out that way."

Mello coughed and sputtered, clinging to the bowl. "Matt, no. Matt, look. I'm burned, Matt, I'm burned."

And then Matt saw it, and he had to look away to keep from vomiting outright. He'd never really dealt with this kind of thing in person. Mello was the action one, the violent one, he took care of this kind of thing. Matt stayed behind computer screens and video cameras and played violent video games that were nothing like what he was looking at now.

Half of Mello's face was bubbling up with blisters, not even angry red, but white and peeling. The skin was already coming off in gray sheets, and it looked dangerously near Mello's eye.

"Oh Mells. Oh my god Mells. What the hell happened?"

But Mello just snaked out his hand and took hold of Matt's and held on tight. "Can't talk. Hurts, Matt."

Of course it did. What the fuck was Matt thinking? "Okay, okay. Shhhh, it's okay. I need you to tell me one thing though. Where is the rest of the Mafia? I need help to help you."

Mello gasped and whispered, "Dead. All dead."

Matt swore under his breath and squeezed Mello's hand more tightly. 

"Matty..." Mello whispered after a moment. 

"I'm here, Mello."

"Am I going to die?" 

Matt tensed. "No fucking way. I'm going to take care of you myself." He gave Mello's hand a final squeeze and stood up quickly. 

"Matt, don't go. Stay with me," Mello begged. 

Matt swallowed hard. He had never, in their years long friendship/relationship, heard Mello sound so weak and helpless. Mello was not weak or helpless, and he did not beg. He was the hotheaded hotblooded fire of god come to earth when he was angry, and he was the one who was always in control. 

Matt discovered that it hurt to breathe all of the sudden. "Mello, I'll be back soon. I'm going to get things. Things to take care of you."

Mello whimpered. Matt choked back a cry and fought the desire to stay here and just hold Mello. He hated this. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Mello wasn't supposed to need him like this.  He had to fix this, and bring the real Mello back.

"Look in the supply room," Mello whispered. 

"Okay. I'll be back soon, promise." Matt left the room quickly, phone light leading the way through the tunnel again. Supply room...supply room...

Must be that other closed door back along the corridor a bit. He found it quickly and pushed it open. The room was dark, but Matt's phone light illuminated a bare light bulb in the ceiling with a pull chain dangling from it. He pulled it, and the room lit up with a dingy yellow glow. 

Hurriedly he looked about. Half the room was shelving full of weaponry. Good, he could get a gun back in his belt. But first things first. 

The other half of the smallish room was cabinetry. Matt opened it and whooped in relief. It was medical. Damn, a lot of medical. 

He scanned the shelves, not even quite sure what he was looking for, but certain he'd know when he found it. And he did. On the top shelf he found a box marked STERILE and opened it to find IV supplies. He set that on the floor and went rummaging through for more items, opening every cabinet. 

In the end, he amassed a small pile. Besides the IV supplies, he found hydrogen peroxide, gauze wrap, and tape. 

The last cabinet he opened contained a lockbox marked "Controlled Substances," and he smashed it open. That's where he found the hydrocodone.  He was about to close the box when he saw a round white plastic container and grabbed for it so fast the rest of the box fell to the floor and spilled. 

It was silvadene. The one thing he had been wishing for but not daring to hope for. He unscrewed the cap and it was half full. No matter. It was something. 

He dumped out a box of casting tape and put everything in it and carried it back to Mello.

When he arrived, Mello looked barely conscious. 

"Mello," he whispered, gently touching his best friend's shoulder. "Mells. Stay awake for just a bit longer." 

Mello moaned, but his eyes opened. At least, the one on the unharmed part of his face did. The other one squinted.

"Listen, Mells, I need you to take your face out of the water. I know, it hurts. But trust me."

"No, Matt, Matt, it hurts, it hurts so bad." Mello's whole body tensed against the idea.

"I know, Mells. But I'm going to help you."

He peeled Mello's hands away from the bowl of water and pried it out of his none too steady grip. The instant his face left the water, Mello started to gasp and choke. 

Matt quickly unscrewed the cap from the silvadene and pasted it liberally on Mello's face with gentle hands, trying not to touch his shedding skin. 

Mello relaxed suddenly, gasping from relief now.  

"Is that better?" Matt asked anxiously. 

"Yes," Mello whispered. His eyes drooped. 

"It's okay," Matt told him quietly, stroking his blood streaked blonde hair. "Go to sleep, Mells. You're not alone, I'm here."

Mello's eyes closed and Matt stroked his hair until he knew he was asleep, and then he set up the IV and gently cleaned each of Mello's bloody cuts and bandaged them.  In the end, he had to cut Mello's shirt off entirely and carefully pull it away from his bloody skin. Mello never stirred as Matt covered him with a blanket from the supply room and tucked it around him with delicate fingers.

As he watched Mello sleep, Matt wondered how long he had been like this, and what the hell had happened to make him like this. But after a moment he knew that for now he wasn't going to ask those questions.

Because this was Mello, and the why and how didn't really matter. What mattered was that he would be all right. 

Matt would make sure of that. 

He took one more trip down the hall, this time to the tiny kitchen off of the meeting room. Opening the refrigerator, he took out a package of energy drinks from the bottom shelf. Rod Ross's crew wouldn't need them now if what Mello said was true. 

But Matt would, because he wouldn't be sleeping again until he knew that Mello would be all right.  

The fire might be out, the fear might be over, but Mello was still burned. And Matt was going to be there to make sure he knew he didn't have to make it alone. 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> If you haven't heard the song this is somewhat based off of, go listen! Flares, by the Script. Also there's a wonderful cosplay by Tovarish-N that also inspired this and I have to give them credit! You can find it here: http://tovarish-n.deviantart.com/art/Mello-and-Matt-477868050.
> 
> Also, silvadene cream is literally magical and I'm not exaggerating its' power here. :)


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